As my friend used to say, there are always some people among fans of any game series who are unhappy with the game. And of course, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is no exception. Every game — Shadow of Chornobyl, Clear Sky and Call of Prypiat — wasn’t perfect, each game had aspects that have been criticized. The games were created by different teams, in different circumstances, in different terms, many promises haven’t been delivered, much content was cut out or not implemented. All of that led to these games not being very coherent with one another even in the classic trilogy. That doesn’t make the games bad, it’s just a fact you have to keep in mind. However, every game had enough strong and expressive points to ensure that this franchise sunk into the souls of many players around the world.

You know, I can consider myself an old S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fan who first learned about Shadow of Chornobyl in 2004 from a computer game magazine. Since then, the Zone won’t let me go. In 2018, when the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 reboot was announced I took it with skepticism, and I had my reasons to. I criticized the game before its release for different reasons, perhaps pushing too hard somewhere, but not because I wanted to hate the project, it’s because I’m partial to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and I was worried about what the next game could be.

And then came the most terrible time for us that changed everything. The lives and safety of the developers came to the forefront for me, and my skepticism about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 moved far into the background. I no longer wanted to joke about another release delay, I wished for the dev team to be okay and continue to make the project as long as needed. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 development was the hardest in the GSC’s history, and the team has seen such difficulties that the SoC team couldn’t even imagine (its development took six years too like the sequel and wasn’t easy). This is not an attempt to make one feel pity in order to deflect any kind of criticism of the game. But in the context of the game this fact cannot be ignored.

Of course, the game has problems. We don’t live in a perfect timeline where every game in the franchise is polished to a diamond and comes out in strictly confirmed condition. I think we’d all like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to always come out on time and be complete without any patches. It’s worth noting that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 really didn’t repeat Cyberpunk 2077’s mistakes — the game’s launch was limited to a couple of platforms, there was no disaster, and the most critical issues preventing the progression were fixed quickly. Slowly playing the game, I haven’t seen these issues but I fatefully sighed when memory leak and freeze happened at 100 Rads Bar location once again. But even these things didn’t bother me.

For example, I really miss binoculars and a night-vision device. GSC knows about it and probably does something to add these features (updated: we got NVDs with the update 1.6!). There is a severe lack of guides, and those that are available at stalker bases are not enough. In the previous games you can meet guides in every stalker squad, and despite their limited routes it allowed saving time. Perhaps it may make sense to add some camps with guides at Duga and Burnt Forest.

Life simulation system is in a semi-functional condition, we can only hope that all the necessary options in it will be turned on step by step, and life in the Zone will truly start working. But I have to mention the AI issues. Spawning characters with different reputations for the player in the same place I found really annoying. For example, Freedom guys are good to me, and mercs see me as an enemy. Hostile NPCs attack me, and friendly NPCs stand or walk peacefully, like nothing happens. Sometimes spawn happens in unexpected places, like by the river, near the water, about ten meters from me. Mutants have almost no behavioral model correlatable to living beings. Feel like I haven’t seen a bloodsucker eat anyone or drag away a corpse to eat. It either stands still or runs and nothing more.

There are boss fights and this is my opinion, but the game would have lost nothing without them. It causes a feeling of battles with some superheroes from Marvel. I’d like to have just beautiful cutscenes with QTE like in the Metro series instead of these boss fights.

My main source of headache in the game are one-shot snipers. They one hit kill headshot you even with perfect costume state from a simple sniper rifle with usual ammo. I thought it’s a lazy game design trick that doesn’t allow crossing over into a location, because I met such snipers near the Red Fortress I was trying to climb, and on the tower near the Yaniv station before gaining access to Prypiat. Probably everyone knows about Granite Sniper Squad which was already fixed. These guys burned my ass so hard, but the Monolith showed mercy to me and I still passed the finale.

Well, it’s time to talk about the strengths of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The main strength is that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. remained itself with unique experience and unforgettable feelings, it just became a bit different. Sequel got me back seventeen years, at the same time when I avidly played SoC. As then, I faded in this aggressive but still familiar world and I spent dozens of real-life hours in the Zone. I was worried that the atmosphere in the new game would be lost, but everything is fine with it. This is the same Chornobyl Anomalous Area that could not but change after all these years. This world is tangible and walking on wet leaves in the woods of the Lesser Zone you literally feel as if you were there, you feel part of the world right there and now. Great work with the environment has been done, it all worth it. So many various places for one game… All of them interesting to explore. And this is going to sound very trivial now, but there are a great many beautiful views in the game that you’ll want to take screenshots and hang them on the wall like paintings.

The plot is on a good level for the series, cutscenes are really awesome, it looks really great from the first-person perspective. There are powerful emotional moments after which it’s even a pity that some characters got less screen time than I would like. And if you’re interested in my opinion, the Skif ending is the most logical and best from the rest.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is the most Ukrainian game in cultural terms, and I just welcome it from the heart. Of course, I would like to make it happen in absolutely other circumstances, but life doesn’t pick sides. Ukrainian voice-over is wonderful, it sits well within the world, and voice-acting is very strong. All the main roles showed themselves well, it’s hard to single out any one of them. And music on the radio, it’s a natural celebration! So many different genres for all tastes. I think it’s very realistic, after all there are different people living in the Zone with their own preferences in music, so even if I don’t like some sort of music, someone else will like it. I personally love post punk bands; this genre is in its place and makes a great addition to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

In conclusion, I would like to write this. The GSC team had the goal to make as fascinating a game as possible, and they did it, though with a lot of problems. I hope that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 gains long-term support, and the game will be even better with it. We’ll see what’s waiting for us in DLC expansions and multiplayer mode. And certainly, the modding community can’t wait for SDK, to turn their big plans into reality to modify the game. Let it all provide the long and good life for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, and many unforgettable hours of survival in the Zone for all of us.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is not only Heart of Chornobyl, but also it’s a heart of the Ukrainian game industry.